Tips for Coloring Your Hair at Home from Clairol

This month's Clairol Alter-Ego Twitter party was so much fun! I teamed up with Andrea from Savvy Sassy Moms to co-host a party all about getting the most fabulous hair color. We worked with the professionals at Clairol to give tips about picking the right color and product as well as providing information on how to make the process easy and long-lasting.

Since not everyone could join the online bash, we wanted to share the insights. Throughout the hour-long conversation all about hair color, our expert Marie Robinson noticed a few questions popped up numerous times and we wanted to make sure to share her valuable tips for at-home hair color needs.How do you keep colored hair conditioned and looking shiny? Maintaining healthy-looking, shiny colored hair is easy to do if you have the right arsenal of hair products. Just apply these simple tips to your hair care regimen:

1. Treat your hair to a weekly deep conditioner2. When heat styling, apply a heat protectant spray first to help shield your locks from the heat 3. Comb through wet hair with a fine-tooth comb; use a boar-bristle brush when styling dry hair 4. Avoid over-exposure to the elements including sun, chlorine and hard water

How do you avoid too-dark hair results? Marie says that women tend to choose a shade that'??s too-dark to begin with. This problem can easily be avoided by going with the lighter option when deciding between two shades. Also, for women that decide they want to go darker, go one shade darker at a time '?? that way, the change won'??t be too dramatic and you can ease yourself into the new look.

How do you avoid brassiness? How do you fix brassiness if you already have it? For women who are experiencing brassiness or orange tones, counteract it with a shampoo and conditioner specially-formulated with the color tones your hair color is lacking, like violet in this case. For women wanting to avoid brassiness altogether, pay special attention to the tone of your hair color shade. Select ash/cool hair color options if you want to avoid golden/caramel hair color. If you have hair that oxidizes rather quickly, it'??s best to avoid overexposure to the sun, hard water and chlorine as these elements easily contribute to unwanted brassiness.

For those that took the alter-ego quiz and learned they were meant to be a red head, here'??s how to achieve that look for both brunettes and blondes! While going from a light blonde or brunette to full-on red head is not recommended at home, you can find a happy medium to embrace your red-head hair color alter-ego. Check out Clairol'??s Try It On Studio to identify the different red hair shades your current hair color can achieve and the anticipated results! Nice '??n Easy Color Blend Technology has some lovely red and auburn shade options to choose from!

How to take care of first grays and overall gray! If those first grays are starting to pop up and you want to quickly get rid of them, a demi-permanent hair color is the best option for you as they cover up to 50% of grays but simply blending them away. If you'??re battling more stubborn grays, go with a permanent hair color as that will guarantee 100% gray coverage for up to eight weeks. If you notice a few grays popping through in between colorings, a root touch-up product will help you do away with them until the next time you color!